Homebuying Tips

The real estate market in Ibiza offers everything one could dream of from romantic country properties and luxury villas to simple apartments. Once you have found the home of your dreams it is important not to leave common sense to one side when signing your contract. Here in Ibiza, where many buyers come from abroad and are not familiar with the laws and the language, it is a good idea to seek the advice of an independent expert. We mean by this proper professionals, not the know-it-all you met at the local bar and who, over the last beer he just bought you, boasts about his many years of experience on the island.

Here are the most important issues that should be considered when buying real estate in Ibiza:

• – The first step is to check with the Land Registry Office that the seller is in fact registered as the owner of the property. This may seem strange to some of our readers, but in Spain, unlike other European countries, it is compulsory to formalise the purchase of a property before a notary and include it in the Registry. However, in order to ensure full legal security, we strongly recommended that all buyers formalize the purchase with a notarial certification and register it at the Land Registry Office.

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• – Also, when checking the Registry, you need to look carefully at the description of the property. Is my dream home, for which I will pay a considerable amount of money, registered with everything that is adhered to it? Is the size of the property correctly registered, including the built area, the pool, the garage, etc. Or is it described as agricultural land with trees and a ruin on it. Or maybe, instead of all 20,000m2 we want to buy, only 5,000m2 are included. If the details that are registered vary wildly from what is really there, then we will have to consider whether it would be suitable to ask the seller to have the mistakes corrected which can be a slow and costly procedure assuming it is even feasible.

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• – As well as checking the registry, it is worth checking the cadastre. In Spain, it is independent from the Land Registry, and therefore it is frequent for the entries in both to differ. Often, the cadastre still includes previous owners and, in the case of rural properties, the huge original properties which are now divided up. This can bring about complications when demarcating the borders of the property and when it comes to paying your real estate tax.

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• – But not only do you need to check the Land Property Registry and the cadastre, there are still more ways to check. If it is a new property, you need to check that the final certificates exists and that the Council has issued the occupancy certificate. Otherwise, you may encounter problems later.

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• – When buying an apartment, it is advisable to make sure that the seller has paid all due community fees and local taxes to the council authority since the new owner is liable for them if not.

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• – As well as all of the above, you should find out about the costs and taxes that buying a property implies: taxes on property transfers, Registry inscription costs, possibility capital gains tax, to name but a few.

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• – Even if you compile all the necessary information before buying a property, you cannot be totally sure that a problem will not arise with your dream home in the future. However, you can reduce this risk to a minimum if you seek the specialised legal advice of a competent lawyer and an officially registered estate agent.